Extracted Text

The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:

—K]Volume 75,WRESW?Number 27Rice's slightly tipsy newspaperFriday, April 22, 1988Chance charges university with discriminationequal to that of men in the departmentChance's lawsuit claims Rice is inviolation of the Equal Pay Act and ofTitle EX of the Education Amend-ments of 1972. Her lawyer, David T.Lopez, filed it in the federal court ofU.S. District Judge GabrielleMcDonaldBoth Chance and Grob declined tospecify the alleged incidences of har-assment. Grob denies Chance'scharges, and says that both he and theEnglish department have stronglysupported affirmative action. Since1973, he says, the department hasmade nine tenure-track appoint-by Lisa GrayEnglish Professor Jane Chancefiled a class-action lawsuit againstRice University last Friday, allegingthat the university has discriminatedagainst women in pay and careeradvancement.She is also suing for punitive dam-ages from English Professor AlanGrob, chairman of the departmentfrom winter semester 1981 throughspring semester 1986. The lawsuitcharges Grob with "insulting, de-meaning and harassing" Chance "inreprisal and retaliation for" her de-mands for promotions and a salaryFaculty offer varied opinions on lawsuitby Lisa Gray getting support from men that I didn't *— *i- r-v. .A class-action lawsuit against Rice expect."ments: six white women, one blackman and two white men. In 1968 Grobfounded a faculty group to recruitblack students. He has also beenhonored by the Black Student Union.He has not yet hired a lawyer.As of Wednesday the universityhad not been officially notified of thelawsuit, according to the Office ofUniversity Relations. University offi-cials will not comment on the caseuntil they have had time to study thecharges.As proof of a university problemwith sexual discrimination, Chancepoints to the scarcity of women inUniversity filed by English ProfessorJane Chance has provoked intensereactions from women faculty mem-bers. Some faculty women backChance's suit strongly."I think it's great and it's been along time coming," said GermanProfessor Susan Clark. "I think Janehas a tremendously valid case." Clarkpoints out that Chance, like manyother women hired during Rice's af-firmative action push in the '70s, mayhave faced a chillier reception by menin her department than do womenhired in the '80s.She also notes that women hired inthe '80s may become more discon-tented as they stay longer at Rice,since the salary gap between male andfemale professors becomes more pro-nounced in the senior ranks.Many supporters of the lawsuitmay be afraid to state their opinionspublicly,Clark said. Chance concurs."I've been getting a lot of secretphone calls and little notes," she said.She adds that others have showntheir approval of her suit. "I've evenhad old students call me. And I'mWomen in the English department,however, say that they have not beentreated unfairly and praise Alan Grob,former chairman of the departmentand a defendant in the suit "The Eng-lish department has been wonderfulto me," said Professor MeredithSkura, the only female full professorin the department other than Chance.Skura said that she has not chaireddepartment committees because shehas not had time for them."All my male colleagues have beenextremely supportive of me," saidAssistant Professor Susan Wood, alsoof the English department. "I'm notsaying that there aren't problems atRice—I know that there have been inother situations—but my experienceat Rice has been very positive."Wood said she does not believe thatthe department discriminates inawarding endowed chairs, pointingout that die department's chosen can-didate for the Moody endowed chairis a woman. The woman was chosenbefore Chance's lawsuit was an-nounced."I feel very strongly that the allega-tions against Alan Grob are unfair,"Wood said. She called Grob "instru-mental" in the development of theWomen's Studies program at Rice,and said that as department chairman,he had a good record of appointingwomen and minorities.Katherine Wallingford, a part-timelecturer in English, also supportsGrob. "I'm angry at his being namedin the suit," she said. "If you were toask anyone in the English department,'Who is the most attuned to the prob-lems of minorities and women?', itwould be Alan Grob.""As a human being who has beenaround the English Department for along time, it grieves me to see hisname in the press as a foe of minoritiesand worn en, "Wallingford said.high administrative and academicpositions at Rice and the marked dif-ference between the average salariesof male and female faculty members.The university has so far refused torelease figures on faculty salariesbroken down by division, but shepredicts a study by the Commissionon Women will show an obvious sal-ary gap. According to an officialstatement by the commission, thestudy will be presented to PresidentGeorge Rupp this summer. The studyis "in no way connected to any legalaction," the statement said.Chance claims that she has beenunderpaid. In spite of her impressiveacademic record—which includesediting three collected books, pub-lishing three of her own, and receiv-ing a Guggenheim fellowship—shesays her salary is below the Riceaverage for a female full professor.She adds that some of the men in theEnglish department and other depart-ments who, like her, received tenurein 1980, have gone on to receiveendowed chairs, although she has not.She also says she has been discour-aged from complaining, both by uni-versity administrators and a formerchair of the English department. Acampus administrator, she says, hasgiven her a copy of the book CampusTroublemakers. Shesays,"Two yearsafter I got here, when I was not put upfor promotion, the then-chair told me,in what I think was an avuncular way,'If you complain about this, this willbe the end of your career at Rice.' "Chance also charges that a dispro-portionate number of Rice's part-timelecturers are female. Part-time lectur-ers, she says, do not get merit in-creases in their pay and have little jobsecurity. No women have everchaired important English depart-ment committees, Chance says. Shesays she had sought to be appointed tochair such committees.Chance is critical the department'smethod of awarding endowed chairsbecause she feels she has not beengiven an opportunity to present herachievements to the department. Shecites one instance in which an en-dowed chair to be filled internally waschosen by polling members of thedepartment. "That turned it into apopularity contest."She says that the English depart-ment has neglected her field, medi-evalism, since she came to Rice, thushampering her professionally. "I'mthe only medievalist in a departmentof 18 to 20 people," she says. "Therewere two male medievalists herewhen I was hired. No w I do the job ofboth."She feels that too much attentionhas focused on her personality sincethe lawsuit was announced. "Bring-ing up the issue of discrimination islike pressing rape charges. The issuesbrought up are not being discussed. Iam being discussed."Goel fired after writing articleDunking the PutzkeCampus Police Officer and Alumnus Ivan Putzke falls after being dunked at theCharity TG last week, hosted by Brown and Lovett. The event raised almost \$200 for the Texas Children's Hospital. —L. Cowsarby Michael RaphaelCentral Kitchen Director JoyceRubash fired one of her student driv-ers on Friday after he wrote aThresher column claiming that CKserves ten-month-old "bad meat" andpays excessive prices for it. MarionHicks, director of Food and Housing,rehired the driver on Saturday andresponded to his criticisms this week,insisting that the College Food Serv-ice pays competitive prices for goodfood."Joyce fired me for disloyalty andinsubordination," Lovett junior Gau-rav Goel, the driver, said. "Mr. Hicksapologized for her, and I started work-ing again." Rubash declined com-ment on the firing, saying it is a pri-vate matter, but Hicks said Goel wasdismissed because of a communica-tion problem. ,"Mrs. Rubash was uptight becausehe (Goel) reported non-reliable fig-ures. She felt there was insubordina-tion involved. I talked to her, and sheagreed we were hasty. . .althoughthere was quite a bit of insubordina-tion, we don't want it said we'retrying to stop freedom of speech,"Hicks said.In his column, Goel wrote that thefajita meat he delivered to some of thecolleges on April 5 "was pale greenand smelled rancid" and came fromboxes dated May 18,1987. Goel alsowrote that College Food Service paid$3.90 per pound for the meat, a 35percent discount from the suppliers'regular price. Goel wrote that a repre-sentative from the supplier, Sysco,told him that the company never givesmore than a 6 percent discount onmeat unless it is substandard or old.Finally, Goel wrote that he calledthree other Houston food distributors,all of which deliver fresh fajita meatAfor less than $2 per pound.Hicks confirmed the May date forthe fajita meat, but denies that it is aproblem. He said that Sysco made ahuge bulk purchase of the meat on thatdate and has probably been deliveringit to campus ever since."Naturally, we don't like thatidea," Hicks said. "We jumped allover Sysco for having meat that old,and they sent a letter saying the meatis OK." In a letter from Rubash to theThresher editor this week {see page2), she says she was "shocked" toleam how old the meat was, but shesubsequently received assurancefrom Sysco that the 10-month-oldmeat is comparable in quality to cur-rent meat.'To my knowledge nothing waswrong with the meat served," Hickssaid, adding that if any of the meatwas bad it is possible that an individ-ual box was handled wrong or ac-cidently allowed to thaw at sometime.Hicks produced guidelines fromthe City of Houston which stipulatethat frozen beef may be stored for uptQ twelve months before serving.Central Kitchen has been within thoseguidelines for the beef fajitas. Thesame guidelines, however, allow onlyeight to ten months for frozen cut-upchicken, but the chicken fajitas whichCK served Tuesday again bore theMay 18,1987, packing date—elevenmonths before they were served.According to Hicks, the food serv-ice hasn't made a strict limit on theage of the meat they serve, but heclaims it is generally three to sixmonths old. However, Hicks believesthat the meat packed last May wasalso served for several other fajitadinners this, semester, such as onMarch 8 and March 22. The foodservice doesn't buy fresh meat be-cause it is motfe expensive since itinvolves more labor to prepare, Hickssaid.Hicks said Goel's price allegationsare misguided. "We purchase com-petitively from Sysc^," he said. "Wetry to purchase the best possible prod-uct at the best possible price." Thoughthe food service buys a large volumeof food from Sysco, it buys fromanother supplier when the price isbetter, Hicks said, citing fresh pro-duce as an example.He said that Sysco has a specialrelationship with the College FoodService that enables them to get prod-ucts at prices lower than those forSysco's less regular customers. Thefood service buys from Sysco on a"cost plus" basis, meaning that Ricesee Hicks, page 6INSIDE:Opinion: Letter from Joyce,page 2.News: Willy's statue movesagain, page 6.Fine Arts Feature: AnnualSammy awards, page 12.Sports: Sports awards an-nounced, page 16.